Here are the weekend box office returns for the weekend ending 5/23/10:
Plot summary (with possible spoilers): The film opens in the year 1898 with Daniel Plainview (played by Daniel Day-Lewis) prospecting for silver somewhere in California. He ends up striking oil in his mine a few years later, which leads to a change in focus. From then on, Daniel is intent on becoming an oilman, not afraid to face competition from major corporations like Standard Oil.
Daniel adopts H.W. (Dillon Freasier), the son of a worker who is killed in one of the wells, and together the two go around buying up land to expand their empire. They get a big boost one night when a young man named Paul Sunday (Paul Dano) comes to them and reveals that there is oil on his family’s ranch. He’s sure his father will sell. Daniel and H.W. go to the Sunday ranch, where they get the ranch for a song. But Paul’s twin brother Eli (Dano) insists that Daniel promise $10,000 to build a church. Daniel reluctantly agrees.
Daniel’s men begin construction on the derrick immediately, while Eli constantly hovers nearby reminding Daniel of his pledge for the church. Daniel has no patience for this kind of thing, and when he refuses to let Eli bless the derrick before the first drilling, the action is akin to an open declaration of war. From that point forward, Daniel and Eli are at odds with each other.
The rest of the film chronicles various happenings in Daniel’s life over the next 20+ years. We see H.W. lose his hearing in an explosion, which alters the father-son relationship forever. We see a man named Henry (Kevin J. O’Connor) come on the scene and claim to be Daniel’s half-brother from Wisconsin. We see Daniel become more and more withdrawn and paranoid as his wealth grows. And we see the bloody culmination of the feud with Eli.
Liked:
Disliked:
Rating:
There Will Be Blood just has the look of a film that I wouldn’t like. I ordinarily don’t go for epic “character studies” that take up three hours of my life without telling a concrete story. But I couldn’t ignore all the buzz this particular film generated, and though there were indeed some very slow spots that had me hitting the “skip” button on my DVD remote, I was surprised by how watchable this was (for the most part). It’s not perfect, and I don’t think I could ever watch it again in its entirety, but I give it 4 stars out of 5 (mostly due to Daniel Day-Lewis).
House 6×22 — “Help Me”: Well, this bland season finale seals the deal for me. I will not be watching House with any kind of regularity next fall. I did not get into this show because of the relationships, and I’ve never particularly cared for a House-Cuddy hookup, so to make that the be all and end all of the season just didn’t do it for me. And wtf was up with Cuddy anyway? First she tells House that she doesn’t love him and is engaged to Lucas, then 20 minutes later she says she does love him and has already broken up with Lucas?? What is this, junior high?! Ugh, so stupid and annoying!
Castle 2×24 — “A Deadly Game”: I really liked this episode. I’m surprised at the very strong fan reaction the other way on some popular message boards. Apparently, a lot of people felt the ending — with Beckett finally ready to declare her feelings for Castle, only to be interrupted by his announcement that he’s spending the summer with ex-wife Gina — was too cliche and trite. I can certainly understand that opinion, but come on! I’m not going to let two minutes ruin the entire episode. Plus, I still totally ‘ship Castle and Beckett, and know that Gina is just a minor obstacle on the road to eventual happiness. Heck, we don’t even know if there’s going to be a sexual component to the Hamptons summer, so why get bent out of shape about it just yet?
Also, I wanted to say that I loved Mitch Pileggi’s role here! He was awesome as a would-be undercover operative… and was then totally hilarious in the jail cell scene where he realized this wasn’t part of the game. Man, the way he crumbled in two seconds flat was priceless! Way to go, Skin-man!
Lost 6×16 — “What They Died For”: I seriously don’t understand why so many people think Lost is the greatest show on television. Message boards are just full of fawning posts over this latest episode, but I was underwhelmed by it. Who knows, maybe the significance of these events is just over my head, but really? This was an awesome episode chock-full of answers?
What I saw was Jacob telling the candidates that they were chosen to come to the island because they had lonely, crappy lives. Um, we already knew that, thanks to the millions of flashbacks that have taken place over the past six seasons. But thanks for the insight there, buddy. And then he says someone has to take over the job of protecting the light on the island…and no one bothers to ask why??? Are you serious??! That would be my first question. What is the significance of that fucking tunnel o’ gold on this uncharted island in the middle of nowhere? Unless I understand why it’s so critical to protect the island, I can’t think much of Jack’s “sacrifice”.
Criminal Minds 5×22 — “The Internet is Forever”: I thought this was one of the best CM episodes of the entire season. The message maybe wasn’t the most original one around (don’t share your entire life on the Internet…duh!), but I liked the way it played out with these characters.
One thing that didn’t make sense, however, was the amount of time the unsub needed in order to set up his victims. During the profiling session, I could’ve sworn one of the agents said the unsub needed several days/encounters with the women to get to know the house, the pets, etc. But when we saw how the guy actually did it, we learned that he was in and out of the house in maybe an hour or two (demonstrating the fiber optic connection). So how did he get to know the animals so well? How did he plant cameras in five different locations all over the house? Perhaps I’m nitpicking here, but that bothered me for a bit!
Have you heard that CBS is canceling seven primetime shows to make way for a bunch of new series in the fall? I don’t know much about how the networks operate, but seven seems like an unusually high number to me. Among the casualties include Cold Case, Ghost Whisperer, Numb3rs, and The New Adventures of Old Christine — all of which I thought had a pretty decent fan base. There’s talk of Christine, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, getting picked up by ABC or NBC, and of Cold Case perhaps moving to a cable network, but the other shows are definitely done. I don’t watch any of these anyway, so my viewing schedule won’t be affected at all.
24 8×22 — 1pm-2pm: I stopped expecting realism from this show a long time ago, so in that sense, I guess I could say I enjoyed this episode. Sure, it’s almost laughable how much stuff Jack Bauer gets away with and how indestructible he is, but that’s something viewers have had to accept almost since the beginning. Once I stop thinking about those things, it becomes much easier to enjoy Jack dressing up in that black outfit to wreak havoc in that tunnel as Logan practically crapped his pants waiting for the inevitable. Come on, that scene was funny as hell! And wow, what the hell happened in that room with all the Russians? Jack did all that single-handed, while bleeding profusely from the gut? See? Indestructible.
HIMYM 5×23 — The Wedding Bride: I actually didn’t hate this episode — which counts as high praise for How I Met Your Mother these days! Sure, there were things that bothered me, such as the fact that Ted made that grand gesture at the movie theater over some girl he’d had, what, 3 dates with. But looking at his history, I guess you could say that’s sort of his thing. After all, didn’t he steal the blue french horn for Robin and declare his love after only one date? Still, maybe the scene would have meant more if I’d had more than 5 seconds to get to know Rory or Royce or whatever the hell her name was.
And speaking of Robin, there she was hanging out with the gang again as though nothing ever happened. If that’s the case (which it should be. She definitely needs to be there), then why make the big to-do about not hanging around with exes because of Don? That ep still bugs.
The good parts here were Marshall’s niceness (bordering on naivete) and Ted’s realization that he’s got just as much baggage as these women he dates. Let’s hope this actually leads somewhere in Season 6.
Seinfeld 3×11 — “The Alternate Side”: There aren’t many forgettable Seinfeld episodes, as that series had a remarkable run. But in my opinion, “The Alternate Side” is one of them. In this episode, Jerry’s car is stolen when the guy who moves parked cars from one side of the street to the other accidentally leaves Jerry’s keys in plain sight. So then there’s a whole thing about the rental car place not keeping Jerry’s reservation, etc. Elaine is dating a 66-year-old writer who has a stroke right when she’s about to break up with him. And George causes havoc on the street when he tries to take over the car parking gig for a week but can’t handle it.
The only memorable thing about this episode was the “These pretzels are making me thirsty” line that Kramer was supposed to have in a Woody Allen movie. Otherwise… ugh, not a good one.
Here are the weekend box office returns for the weekend ending 5/16/10:
Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Phil (played by Steve Carell) and Clare Foster (Tina Fey) are a typical 40-something suburban New Jersey married couple. They are driven by the routines of home, work, and children, and rarely have any time or energy left to devote to keeping the spark alive in their marriage. Phil and Clare do set aside one night a week as date night, but even then, it’s a battle to work up the enthusiasm to actually go through with it.
When Phil learns that longtime married friends Brad (Mark Ruffalo) and Haley (Kristen Wiig) are getting a divorce, he begins to worry about his relationship with Clare. Sure, they get along just fine — but so did Brad and Haley, which was precisely the problem. Brad and Haley turned out to be excellent roommates, and nothing more. Phil doesn’t want that to happen with him and Clare, so he decides to make their next date night special.
The two head into New York City for dinner at Claw, the hottest new seafood place in Manhattan. Without reservations, however, they are unable to get a table and end up waiting at the bar. Phil, feeling desperate to make a change in the routine, decides on a whim to take the reservations of a couple named Tripplehorn, who are apparently a no-show. They grab the table, enjoy a great meal and too much wine — and then are dragged out into the back alley by a couple of tough-looking guys.
Phil and Clare think this is about stealing the reservation, but it soon becomes clear that Collins (Common) and Armstrong (Jimmi Simpson) are after them for a completely different reason. The two men think they really are the Tripplehorns, who have been blackmailing someone. Collins and Armstrong demand the return of a flash drive with incriminating evidence on it, which of course Phil and Clare don’t have. But with guns to their heads, they figure that pretending to be the Tripplehorns is the best way to go, so they play along until they’re able to escape.
From there, Phil and Clare work through the night trying to unravel the details of whatever plot they happen to be caught up in so they don’t bring any danger to their children. The police are no help, as it turns out that Collins and Armstrong are dirty cops, so the couple go to Holbrooke Grant (Mark Wahlberg), one of Clare’s old clients, for help. Eventually, the Fosters are able to get to the bottom of the plot, make sure the bad guys are apprehended, and return to their quiet New Jersey life.
Liked:
Disliked:
Rating:
Date Night was a surprisingly good screwball comedy that involves viewers in Phil and Clare’s problems right from the start, and manages to keep them interested for the entire ride. The main characters are likable, the plot while not plausible is at least believable within the confines of the film, and the minor characters were also funny and engaging. I give this 4 stars out of 5.
House 6×21 — “Baggage”: Wow, I just hated this episode! It was completely boring, the PoTW took a backseat to character “drama” yet again, and as a result, I nearly fell asleep. In fact, I nearly stopped watching several times, but thought there might be an awesome reveal at the end (a la many Lost eps), so I stuck with it. Big mistake, big waste of time. Seriously, this show is on my personal chopping block and will not return in its Weekly TV Roundup slot next season!
Castle 2×23 — “Overkill”: This episode was only ok for me. I found the mystery to be underwhelming, and the “competition” between Demming and Castle felt a bit forced. Castle writers usually don’t go for those types of situations because they’re too easy and have been done so many times before by other shows, so I was disappointed to see a lame pissing contest take center stage. I didn’t like Beckett’s kiss at the end either. I got the feeling that viewers were supposed to feel bad for Castle there, but didn’t the previous ep kind of leave off in a similar way? At least give Castle something new to do so he’s not constantly mooning over Beckett from afar. That’ll get old pretty damn quick.
Lost 6×15 — “Across the Sea”: I can’t imagine any reality in which Lost producers would conclude that this is a terrific way to spend one of the last few precious hours left in the series. Did we really need another history/origin story here? Did we have to spend the ENTIRE hour learning about Jacob and his unnamed brother’s childhood angst and mommy issues? Good lord. Some people are positively giddy about the “answers” that were presented in this episode, but I swear, if we went the whole series without ever answering the question of who those skeleton remains of the island’s own “Adam and Eve” were, I wouldn’t have lost any sleep over it. Sheesh. And on a shallow note, though I usually love me some CJ Cragg, she just did not look all that great in HDTV.
Criminal Minds 5×21 — “Exit Wounds”: This was just a ho-hum episode for me. The killings/killer weren’t all that interesting, and besides the different location (Alaska), this episode totally felt like a been-there-done-that exercise for the team. I didn’t even like the Penelope/Morgan interaction, which I usually do, because it felt totally forced this time around. The best part for me? When Rossi walked into the BAU in a tux at the very beginning.